]]>There has been silence on our weblog for too long. It’s not like nothing happened: We’ve been doing our regular consulting work, spoke at quite a few events and been investing heavily on our goal to automate compliance script analysis for Oracle databases.

In our initial setup, clients were required to have possession of Oracle’s audit scripts to get started. We noticed that this was very restrictive for many companies. So, we set out to create our own set of Oracle database audit scripts – on steroids, that is. Once our scripts worked flawlessly, we were soon asked about privacy concerns relating to the collected data. And so, we set out to develop an encryption tool to anonymize the data. Our encryption goes well beyond Oracle’s own masking of Oracle’s own scripts. Soon a client asked if they could share our output during an Oracle LMS audit. To accommodate the request, we built a conversion tool to make our script output readable for Oracle’s LMS auditors. This resulted in our script output being accepted by Oracle LMS, which is pretty awesome. So to break the silence, today this is where we are.

Gives guidance as to why a license is required, allowing you to make better informed decisions

Is kept up to date by us on a weekly basis.

With that, Oracle Database compliance becomes available to the world: Being taken off-guard and slammed around during an audit is now a thing from the past. Our analysis skills are here for everyone to consume. And the best is: A free version is also available, allowing you to do a sanity check at no cost.

We’ve been asked to speak at the VMUG Germany in Frankfurt on June 16 2016. Speaking about running Oracle on VMware and our experiences in assisting clients around the world. Most likely the casuistry about our client’s recent dispute with Oracle will be discussed as well. But what’s really scary for me and the attendees is that I (Daniel) will be speaking in German. See you there?

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/speaking-at-vmug-germany-june-16/feed/0The virtualization discussion clarified: Client vs Oraclehttps://www.licenseconsulting.com/virtualization-to-be-clarified/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/virtualization-to-be-clarified/#respondMon, 25 Apr 2016 20:01:59 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=438In 2015, Mars sued Oracle about – amongst others – the virtualization issue which was settled under NDA. We commented that any formal legal verdict about such case is very unlikely, primarily because Oracle will always at all times avoid risking case law. Today, License Consulting is closely involved in a new and unique casuistry where

]]>In 2015, Mars sued Oracle about – amongst others – the virtualization issue which was settled under NDA. We commented that any formal legal verdict about such case is very unlikely, primarily because Oracle will always at all times avoid risking case law.

Today, License Consulting is closely involved in a new and unique casuistry where an Oracle client ran into several difficulties with regard to Oracle’s virtualization policies. Subject of the dispute is a standard Oracle Master Agreement dating from early 2015, which is subjected to EU laws. Oracle’s Legal Senior counsel confirmed in writing that by running Oracle on VMware, the cost for Oracle licenses exceeds €300.000. And, Oracle formally confirmed that the cost of running on Oracle VM instead would be 90% less. In both cases, the client would use CPU Affinity (CPU pinning for Oracle VM). Oracle has been formally informed that the client – in addition to the expert opinion from License Consulting – now seeks another opinion from an expert to be assigned by the courts. The clarifications sought go beyond virtualization alone: If awarded in favor of the client, the license requirement would be reduced to a license fee much less than €30.000 – whilst running on VMware! In our view this case will not only be clarifying the casuistry about virtualization, but set precedent far beyond the realms of virtualization and Oracle alone.

In 2015, License Consulting was requested to write a second opinion for this client. As such we are closely involved. Our expert opinion is an essential part of this dispute. If you want to stay informed, signup for our newsletter and you’ll be ensured of a seat in the front row.

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/virtualization-to-be-clarified/feed/0Announcing LicenseAudit.comhttps://www.licenseconsulting.com/announcing-oraclereviewlite-com/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/announcing-oraclereviewlite-com/#respondMon, 25 Apr 2016 14:07:55 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=432Clients who have once been audited by Oracle are familiar with ‘Oracle Review Lite’ scripts: Oracle uses them to audit clients, telling them how the Oracle programs are or have been used. More often than not, the outcome are a big surprisefor clients, with a large compliance claim as a result. Unfortunately the true business value

]]>Clients who have once been audited by Oracle are familiar with ‘Oracle Review Lite’ scripts: Oracle uses them to audit clients, telling them how the Oracle programs are or have been used. More often than not, the outcome are a big surprisefor clients, with a large compliance claim as a result. Unfortunately the true business value of such claims can often not be explained. The reason for that problem is that Oracle implements nothing to protect clients from unknowingly using components that require additional licenses. Also, Oracle provides no tools to visualize if currently of historically any of such components have been touched by anyone. With end users being unable to analyze the scripts themselves, many feel ‘lost’ as to how compliant they really are. Compliance claims come as an unpleasant surprise. As for the script output: It consists out of many .csv files for each individual database, some of which contain thousands of rows with data. Even for the most seasoned Database Administrator it is impossible to understand what the data implies before sending it out to Oracle.

License Consulting is very capable in analyzing this audit data, and has been for many years. As former Oracle auditors, we use our skills to either reduce compliance claims from Oracle based on forensic facts found within the audit data, for assisting with ULA certifications or to provide a managed audit service to our clients around the world. With LicenseAudit.com we have developed an analysis tool to entirely automate the audit script analysis. It will be available to the masses in Q3 2016. A game-changing feature for both clients and Oracle is a free dashboard view, outlining the number of database instances where we have found an Option or Management Pack is (or has been) used. Users who see nothing unexpected, are reassured that no hidden surprises are revealed when audited by Oracle. Users who are surprised by specific findings, can pay a fee to get intimate insight in the analysis results in order to initiate further decision making.

The initial version will at minimum analyze the following Oracle Database Options and Management Packs, which cause the largest concerns during audits:

Real Application Clusters

Partitioning

Spatial

Advanced Compression

Advanced Security

Tuning Pack

Diagnostics Pack

In the next few weeks we will invite a limited group of free BETA users. Prior to that we will invite beta users as well. If you want to be invited for the BETA program, signup for our newsletter.

Questions and Answers

Q: How correct is your analysis?A: We analyze the data better than Oracle does. Should we learn of an imperfection, the specific user will get a free re-run of the data, and more. We will update our analysis engine accordingly, to continuously improving the quality.

Q: We have Flexera or another Oracle Certified Tool: Why would we use LicenseAudit.com?A: Oracle’s Certified Tool program is no longer up to date. Most vendors are dealing with outdated scripts. In addition, the analysis algorithm was created by Oracle: Obviously this algorithm is not fit for license optimization but for generating license revenue. To test drive it, just compare the outcome from an Oracle Certified Tool with ours. We are working for many Oracle Certified Tool vendors who already recognize that our expertise is much more useful and valuable than the scripts and algorithms provided by Oracle. In fact, most of our ‘managed service’ clients are using Flexera company wide, but rely on us for their Oracle compliance.

Q: Will you implement analysis for all Options and Management Packs?A: Eventually we will.

Q: Can I re-use this data for our SAM process or CMDB?A: We offer export functions to Excel in 2 structures: On a host and database level.

Q: How about data privacy concerns?A: The audit output from Oracle does contain sensitive data. That’s why we remove all data once the analysis is complete. In addition, you can delete your online report as well once you have run your analysis (and exported it to Excel). We will go into production on Amazon and ensure that all data is encrypted. We make use of certificates to ensure secured connections.

Q: Do you provide some advisory around the findings?A: Yes. In fact, for every single finding we explain why we come to a specific conclusion. LicenseAudit.com will also explain how you could eliminate such use, providing it is unintended or merely a trace from prior / historical use, that today should not be licensed anymore. Also, for some tools we will flag the usage as ‘maybe’: In which case we will provide instructions as to how you can ascertain if it should really be a NO or YES.

Q: How can you ensure you are keeping the analysis engine up to date?A: In the same way we stay up to date for many years: By staying up to date with Oracle scripts, and continue to analyse the data with our human operated data-warehouse. Everything we learn during our regular consulting work will be implemented in the script engine available at LicenseAudit.com. In addition, the feedback from our many existing and new clients will ensure excellent accuracy.

Q: Where can I get the audit scripts?
A: The audit scripts are sent to you by Oracle upon audit notification. If you are not under audit and have no audit scripts you can request a copy from Oracle. Alternatively, you can probably request a copy from an Oracle Partner that you feel confident enough to ask this question.

Q: I don’t want to ask Oracle or an Oracle Partner for audit scripts. Now what?
A: We will eventually develop our own proprietary scripts, which will be much more ‘lean and mean’ than Oracle’s scripts. Also, our scripts would collect much less privacy sensitive data than Oracle, and pull a lot more relevant data from the database that can be used to provide you with optimization tips and guidance. Signup for our newsletter to stay up to date.

Q: What will the pricing look like?
A: Similar to what we ask as part of our consulting services where we deliver staggering ROI’s. The pricing will depend on the number of database instances you want to have analyzed. In addition we will provide subscription models and a partner model.

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/announcing-oraclereviewlite-com/feed/0Mars vs Oracle: Interesting legal casehttps://www.licenseconsulting.com/mars-vs-oracle-lawsuit-vmware-virtualization/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/mars-vs-oracle-lawsuit-vmware-virtualization/#respondTue, 19 Jan 2016 15:36:34 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=384Yesterday I was pinged by my fellow Oracle-On-VMware-Licensing-Guru Dave Welch at the House of Brick. He wrote a very interesting article about Mars filing suit against Oracle. Part of the discussion was Oracle’s view on licensing Oracle programs on virtual environments. Within 2 months, it was dismissed. First of all I applaud Mars for sticking to

]]>Yesterday I was pinged by my fellow Oracle-On-VMware-Licensing-Guru Dave Welch at the House of Brick. He wrote a very interesting article about Mars filing suit against Oracle. Part of the discussion was Oracle’s view on licensing Oracle programs on virtual environments. Within 2 months, it was dismissed.

First of all I applaud Mars for sticking to it’s guns on enforcing their contractual rights. Secondly I applaud Dave’s well structured analysis of available material and getting it out in the open. Thirdly, I am entirely unsurprised about the outcome of this court filing!

In the 2012 VMworld session I already outlined Oracle’s point of view:

“Oracle’s goal is not to go to court. Their goal is to make you spend more money with Oracle.”

Many clients find it very hard to believe that there is no merit behind Oracle’s arguments, even after repeatedly investigating Oracle’s footnotes (for a comprehensive overview of all issues, check Don Sullivan’s VMware Blog post).

Why it will never make to Oracle case law

Major software vendors panic when they hear ‘licensing’ in conjunction with ‘court verdict’. For good reasons: Had this particular filing made it to final judgement, I would have been able to name 8 clients in 8 seconds, each of whom would sue Oracle for damages in excess of an 8 digit or higher number. And so, risking a ruling in the client’s favor potentially risks revenue outlooks projected to shareholders. Stock prices would go down. Sales revenues would stay down. The vendor would risk claims for damages originating from deals made in the past. Lastly, the negative publicity will cause serious damages for any vendor. Indeed, the credibility of a software vendor would be at stake.

The simple and predictable resolution for a software vendor is to visit the client, pay compensation for incurred costs and give a – let’s say – 99,999% discount on the software licenses required. Possibly a price-hold for the next 5 years. All under NDA. And a good laugh on Larry’s boat about the past dispute. With that in place, no sensible CIO or legal counsel would spend another penny on a lawyer only to make it come to a verdict.

That’s the single reason why there is no Oracle case law on this oh-so-obvious FUD.

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/mars-vs-oracle-lawsuit-vmware-virtualization/feed/0Oracle on vSphere Licensing at VMworld 2015https://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-on-vsphere-licensing-at-vmworld-2015/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-on-vsphere-licensing-at-vmworld-2015/#respondMon, 13 Jul 2015 19:04:42 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=377Following VMworld 2012 and 2014 we are again present at VMworld 2015. Known sessions: Barcelona: Session ID: VAPP6538-GD Session Title: Oracle on vSphere Licensing with House Of Brick & License Consulting. Track: Software-Defined Data Center More info will be added in the next weeks. If you want to have a 1:1 during a cup of coffee,

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-on-vsphere-licensing-at-vmworld-2015/feed/0Business ethics about risk mitigationhttps://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-risk-mitigation/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-risk-mitigation/#respondFri, 10 Apr 2015 22:58:00 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=351We are often asked what kind of risk mitigation and preventative actions we advise our clients to take. First and foremost: We don’t advise our clients to do anything! We only calculate the cost effect of each obvious option they might consider, identify the options which we think are also viable options, and create a

]]>We are often asked what kind of risk mitigation and preventative actions we advise our clients to take. First and foremost: We don’t advise our clients to do anything! We only calculate the cost effect of each obvious option they might consider, identify the options which we think are also viable options, and create a list of pro’s and con’s for each option. As a result our clients can make their decision themselves. We have no part or stake in their eventual decision: That’s the beauty of being impartial!

Companies typically want to pay every penny that they owe for using third party software: We would never advise clients to take any other action. As an example however, at one point we found ourselves in the awkward situation where a client – for many internal political reasons – did not act upon the significant in-compliance that we discovered. We discussed it with our client’s project manager and even considered the termination our long-term relationship, because we did not want to be associated with such case. Eventually we sent a memo to the members of the board summarizing the risks and difficulties we had encountered and recommend to them to act upon it. Oddly enough, a day later all internal politics ceased to play part and the customer acted upon our advice and soon afterwards they were licensed correctly. Becoming properly licensed does not always imply the purchase of more licenses. We are in business because we are expert at advising effective approaches to licensing correctly other than simply shopping for huge discounts. The answer may include but is not necessarily limited to adjusting infrastructures, re-deployments of databases on the same infrastructures, migrating from license definition A to definition B, or to buying other (often cheaper) license options than would typically be proposed by Oracle. Often, each of the aforementioned options will constitute aspects of the optimal solution. To deceive Oracle’s auditors by changing or otherwise manipulating audit evidence is not an option.

Instead we find it very valuable to use the audit information pro-actively. Existing clients will agree that our value is not just in the actual work we deliver, but also in helping managing Oracle’s expectations / pipeline. For example, in our presentation during the webcast hosted by DBTA we illustrated a situation where a client who was accused by Oracle for using DataPump with an associated claim for $287,000.. In this case we were contracted ‘after the fact’. If we had been contacted earlier, we would have proactively recognized the presence of DataPump To alleviate the problem in a preventative mannerwe would have drafted an e-mail to be sent from to Oracle by the client, explaining a) how surprised they were to find that feature in a database edition where it did not belong, b) the functionality was only tested and found to not live up to the expectations and costs. With this simple note, sent to Oracle prior to the collection of the actual audit data, the client may have prevented an opportunistic LMS or Sales rep from forecasting a new deal with a probability of 70%. The DataPump testing would have been a non-issue.

All risk mitigations we take are aimed at assuring compliance, whilst eliminating ‘sales-forecast-risks’. For example we make clients aware that Oracle’s own Grid Control software accepts and agrees to management targets by default, flagging the audit output being ‘Yes/Yes’ for ‘License Agreed / Access Granted’ in Grid Control (finally, in version 12, the customer can create a ‘default’ for this “feature” and we advise that the customers use this option!). Before running audit scripts we would ensure that the client has taken steps to properly configure that the Yes/Yes output reflects the intended use, therefore reflecting what they should be paying. By doing so, all discussions and efforts can be targeted towards issues that do matter. As another example we would verify that if Spatial option is only using the Locator function and not true geospatial data we would be informing Oracle accurately and actively: The problem is that Oracle’s audit scripts are incapable of making the distinction between these two, and we would like to prevent our clients from negotiating a 90% discount with an opportunistic sales-rep about licenses they didn’t require in the first place. Professional consulting in this area can prevent significant waste of time, effort and money.

There are always many considerations when examining audit output. After all we analyze a few hundred million rows of audit data every year. Our purpose is to always use that data do the right thing on behalf of our clients and make certain that they meet their legitimate licensing obligations to Oracle. But just as importantly that they are architected efficiently and that the customer only pays what the customer truly owes.

]]>https://www.licenseconsulting.com/oracle-risk-mitigation/feed/0The Oracle Speeding Tickethttps://www.licenseconsulting.com/the-oracle-speeding-ticket/
https://www.licenseconsulting.com/the-oracle-speeding-ticket/#respondThu, 05 Mar 2015 20:55:47 +0000http://www.licenseconsulting.eu/?p=279Inspired by the fun post from the House of Brick we follow their example (click to enlarge)! Join the both of us for the webinar on March 19th 2015, where we untangle the FUD about Oracle licensing in virtualized environments. Free of charge, open to everyone!